School Books and Resources (Covid-19 Closure Update)

Scoil Éanna took the decision not to send the school books home for a number of reasons:

The books contain content that the teachers must teach before children can attempt the various tasks in the books. While we agree that parents could take on this task, we feel that not all would progress at the same pace and the teachers then would have a lot of work to do to get everyone up to speed.

This is an unprecedented time in our history. Children are living through an event that will be remembered for generations to come. Many will be stressed. Others will be happy to be free of the shackles of school, despite the isolation! For this reason, pressure to complete work in books could add to children’s anxiety.

Teachers will work tirelessly to make up this time when children return to school. They will prioritise the main subjects – Irish, English and Maths to ensure no child loses out. With this in mind, you could use this time at home to look at the other subject areas, while still doing some reading, writing and mathematical tasks.

Children could keep a daily, handwritten diary in a copy – this would be history into the future. Other activities such as “Free Writing” are used in all classes and can allow them to keep busy writing. They could write letters to grandparents, cousins etc. at this unprecedented time. Shopping lists, recipes etc. would all keep them writing.

Cooking – weighing out ingredients, getting the potatoes/vegetables for dinner are all things which would help mathematical knowledge. Estimate how many potatoes you need etc.

Children should continue to read and to be read to – even books you read yourself can interest children. The national library service, www.librariesireland.ie has lots of books in e format which can be read on a phone or a tablet.

Watching TG4 will allow children to be immersed in the Irish language and they will unwittingly pick up phrases and language that will stay with them when they return to school.

If your child has an interest in science, history or geography get them to do some research and produce a project. As a family you could engage in some creative art using old cereal boxes, toilet rolls etc.

Some physical activity is also very important and time in the fresh air, while maintaining social distancing is invaluable.

The following links will take you to websites where there are suggestions of online content to keep your child engaged in educational activity – if you find they are interested in one site or another make sure to timetable it into your daily activity.